Revenge of the Chemist
by Estoma
Summary: Did you ever wonder how District 5 ever got a victor? This is my rather fanciful imagination of just how that might come about. It involves a brass locket, a car battery and a cupboard door. How does that make a victor you might ask? Have a look!


**Author's note: Not all the tributes from District 5 are very intelligent red heads, no, there are some intelligent blondes too. How else would a tribute from the power district win their games? With electricity of course. For anyone who actually does study chemistry, I'm sorry that this is rather impossible chemically, but it's just something my chemistry class and I came up with. Please feel free to review and let me know what you think. If you like this, I may try to come up with a few more strange ways to win the games. Now this is just a one shot, and I will not do the reaping, interview, etc, because you've read it all before. Just imagine an arena that looks like a bombed city….**

**Oh and of course I do not own the Hunger Games or any of the characters but my own. **

The door to her room in the justice building shut with a nasty click but did not stay shut long. Selenium Silvers didn't bother to wipe the tears off her face; saying goodbye to her little brothers Arsenic and Bromine was just too much. And it was goodbye. They were intelligent enough not to think there was a chance of return. Not for a tribute from District 5.  
"Selenium."  
"Cal." She said tearfully. Cal, short for Calcium of course.  
He did not waste time trying to comfort her, and when she tried to kiss her boyfriend he pushed her away and held her at arms' length.  
"Stop crying." He commanded.  
"I can't help it." She replied, though sounding a little more annoyed than sad now.  
"Look, you can win, and do you know why?"  
He raised his eyebrows and waited for her to answer.  
"Because the arena is really a giant petri dish?" she said a little hysterically. She giggled, and once she started, she couldn't stop it. Cal shook her shoulders.  
"Because you're smart even though you're blonde." He snapped.  
"Smart vs a hundred kilo guy with a sword? Oh yes, I see." She said sarcastically.  
"No I mean it." He said earnestly, "You can do things with chemicals that the factory owner doesn't understand."  
"Because they have so many electrolytic cells in the arena."  
"They will if you tell them that's what you want." Cal insisted.  
"You're crazy. If they gave us what we wanted then we wouldn't be here!"  
"Look, you tell them how you could kill someone with some acid, or a bomb and then they'll make sure the things you need are in the arena. Because it'll make good viewing."  
"You really think the gamemakers would listen?" she asked, wanting to believe him.  
"They'll listen to you." He paused, pulling something out from his pocket. It was a brass charm, but when Cal slid his finger along the side it opened. Selenium leaned forwards and gasped at what was inside. If she hadn't seen him open it, she doubted she would know it could.  
"How did you get that?"  
"Doesn't matter. I thought it would be a good district token. Go on." He pressed it into her hand and she slipped it into her pocket.

Selenium crouched against the shattered wall. There was something smeared on it which she tried to ignore. Her hands shook when she unzipped her backpack. Dried beef had never tasted so good, though she thought it would classify as leather rather than food. She chewed on it while she pulled out the other items that she had risked her life to steal from the cornucopia. It didn't look like much. A few spare bottles of waters, a paper bag of salt and a light weight sword, just in case. That made Selenium laugh, a lot. She clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound. It was loud in the relative quiet. To the Capitol audience, it would look like she was doing something mystical, or maybe nothing at all. But Selenium knew what she was doing. Taking the salt, she poured it into one of her water bottles and dissolved it. Good. Salt water. The locket came out from around her neck and she slid the secret catch, shielding it from the cameras with her hand. Inside was a fine coil of gold wire, very thin, and excellent for conducting. Earlier that day, she had found one car battery that had enough power left in it for what she wanted. Only one and she had tried a dozen cars. Wrapping the wire around the battery terminals she dipped both ends into the salt water and smiled. Nothing seemed to be happening but for the faint smell. It was like the deep swimming pool in the training centre. Immediately Selenium put the neck of the bottle to another larger one. She added a little water, and then more, bit by bit until she had a litre of liquid that looked just like water. Doing up the lid she got a drop on her finger and it burned. It was unlike her, to be careless. As it burnt she laughed again, a strangled sound as she tried to stop herself. When she raised her hand to her mouth to stop herself laughing the acid on her finger burnt her lip and she couldn't stay quiet. Luckily there was nobody to hear, not when there were only three tributes left aside from herself. The three careers. And from careful watching, Selenium knew they hadn't split up yet. They were still basing themselves around the cornucopia to hunt her.

It was early afternoon by the time Selenium had set her plans. Now she had to move quickly. She lit a fire in the opposite direction to her hiding place, and the cornucopia. The glue in the cupboard doors she piled on the blaze, and the petrol siphoned from one of the many wrecked cars would smell even if they wouldn't burn with a lot of smoke. She watched as long as she dared at the cornucopia, but the careers hadn't left a guard. Taking a deep breath, she dashed out of the covered of a shattered library and covered the open ground to the golden horn. Indiscriminately, she stuffed dried food into her bag and then pulled out the bottle of acid. Like doing a swap she thought, giggling again. Being careful not to spill any, she poured off the top few centre metres of water in each bottle and added the acid on top. It floated there, invisible in the cloudy plastic bottles. With the extra left, she tipped it into the water tank they had just inside the horn. The acid in that would make it undrinkable, but the stuff in the bottles, well, it would burn. Acid spilt on a toughened finger was bad enough, but acid on the tender membranes of someone's mouth would be agony. It might just incapacitate someone enough for them to be easy prey. Selenium thought back to Cal's words. Give the Capitol entertaining deaths. Well she'd try.

Selenium walked. The temperature had plummeted, and it was the best way to keep warm; she dared not to light a fire, not with the careers all hunting her. She was on edge. At every small sound she jumped, even when it was only her own foot scraping against the cracked concrete. The sound of a cannon echoed around the shattered buildings and it sent her reeling against the nearest wall, covering her head with her hands. Another cannon went off, and then another one. Three in a row. For a moment, Selenium didn't realise what it was. Even when the trumpets blared out and a spotlight highlighted her where she crouched, she didn't know what was going on.  
"I give you your victor, Selenium Silvers from District 5!"


End file.
